Pantry Challenge

For the month of January I am participating in a pantry challenge, to feed my family for $75 a week!  I go shopping once a month for the bulk of what I need and then pick up the perishable stuff that we need on the in between weeks.  So my goal is to keep the monthly total to $300, if possible.  Yesterday was my shopping day and the total for the day was $193.  Not too shabby for a start but we will see how the rest of the month goes!

So, here is my tentative menu for the month.  I usually plan out my menu for the month but we are extremely flexible in what gets made when, or even gets made at all.  I cook based more on what we have on hand than anything else.  With all that said, here is the menu, it has been updated to reflect our actual meals for the week:

Thursday
Breakfast - Cold cereal. I'm not much of a morning person and getting up and making breakfast is really difficult for me thus we have cold cereal fairly often.  I figure this costs us about $2 for the whole meal for the 7 of us.
Lunch - Sandwiches. Not sure what kind, we will use whatever we have on hand.  I bought the bread at the day old bread store for .60 (100% whole wheat!), 1 loaf will feed the family for lunch, plus whatever it costs for the filling and fruit/vegies served with it.  Probably around $1.50 - 2 for the whole lunch
Dinner - Tostadas and fruit.  Not sure exactly how much this meal costs, I package of shells will last for 2 meals, 1 can of refried beans is around $2, plus all the toppings (tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa)  Actual Meal: Beef Stew &Rolls.  Cost is about the same as what I planned to make.

Friday
Breakfast - Baked Oatmeal
Lunch - Sandwiches, fruit and/or vegies Leftovers
Dinner - Homemade Pizza.  This is probably the most expensive meal of the week but it's our family tradition and we all love it.  I figure it costs me about $7 (ouch!).

Saturday
Breakfast - Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Egg Gravy.  $3 for everything with leftovers!
Lunch - Leftovers (Smorgasbord!)  Free!Tostadas with all the fixings (See Thursday night dinner above.)
Dinner - Homemade Mac N' Cheese, Fruit, Vegies.  $3 for everything.

Sunday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal.  We always have cold cereal on Sundays, we leave early for church and cooking something has proved to be completely impossible.
Lunch - ?  I'll decide when I get home from church.  :-)  This turned out to be more leftovers.
Dinner - High Tea!  Yum!  This is a very inexpensive meal, around $2.  We were invited to a friends house for the afternoon and evening so I didn't have to cook, Yay!

Monday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - More leftovers
Dinner -Baked Chicken, vegies, fruit.  $4

Tuesday
Breakfast -Hot Cereal.  We will choose between oatmeal, cream of wheat, or rice with milk, fruit and sugar. - We picked Oatmeal.
Lunch - PBJ, fruit and/or vegies
Dinner - Enchiladas, green salad.  $4.50

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal. Fruit and toast.
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - BBQ chicken, rolls, vegies. green salad $4.50

Snacks
We don't snack much, mostly on fruit and vegies.  I stock up on them whenever it's on sale, usually we have apples, oranges, and bananas on hand.

Drinks
We go through around 4 gallons of milk a week here, roughly $8 when it's on sale.  I will buy as much as can fit in my fridge when it's on sale, it usually last till the next sale.  I purchase soda on sale and keep it on hand for Mark on Friday nights, otherwise we don't drink it.  (Notice I keep it on hand for Mark, not the rest of the family)  We have juice with breakfast on the weekends ($2) and water the rest of the week.  Water with lunch and with dinner, except occasionally when I make iced tea (.20 a batch).

I think that about covers it.  Not sure how close I am on my prices but I did the best I could.   I'm linking up to Large family living in a small family world pantry challenge.